Corporate governance and ethics debates

Summary

This downloadable lesson for C2 ESL students explores corporate governance and ethics. This advanced English class material includes vocabulary, grammar, and a role-play activity to help students discuss complex business dilemmas.

This lesson helps advanced students delve into the intricacies of ethical decision-making in a business context. Activities include a warm-up discussion on ethical dilemmas, a vocabulary matching task, and a listening gap-fill task based on a formal statement. Students will practice using inversion for emphasis to enhance formality and engage in a realistic board meeting role-play to apply newly learned language and concepts. The material is designed to generate meaningful conversation and provide practical communication tools for high-pressure corporate situations.

Activities

• A warm-up discussion where students share personal experiences with three realistic ethical dilemmas in small groups, prompting them to consider different stakeholder perspectives and decide on a course of action. This sets the stage for the lesson's theme.
• Students learn key corporate governance terms through matching and reading exercises. A listening gap-fill task tests their comprehension of a formal statement on corporate ethics, reinforcing the new vocabulary.
• Learners focus on using inversion for emphasis, a key feature of formal English, through a rewriting exercise. They are also provided with a bank of useful phrases for expressing concern and debating ethical issues.
• The lesson culminates in a board meeting role-play where students take on different personas (CEO, Head of Legal, etc.) to manage a PR crisis, using the language and concepts learned throughout the class.

Corporate governance and ethics debates C2

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Vocabulary focus

The vocabulary section focuses on high-level, formal terms essential for discussing corporate governance. Students will learn and practice words like 'fiduciary duty,' 'malfeasance,' 'probity,' 'due diligence,' 'stakeholder capitalism,' 'whistleblower,' 'scrutiny,' and 'impunity' in various contexts.

Grammar focus

This lesson targets the advanced grammatical structure of inversion for emphasis. Students will learn how to restructure sentences starting with negative or limiting adverbials like 'Never had...', 'Not only did...', and 'Under no circumstances should...'. This is crucial for adding formality and impact in business English.